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Unlike some actors such as Robert Mitchum, Douglas had a high opinion of actors, movies, and moviemaking, ‘To me it is the most important art form—it is an art, and it includes all the elements of the modern age.’ But he also stressed the entertainment value of films, ‘You can make a statement, you can say something, but it must be entertaining.’His first film as a director was Scalawag (1973). In his autobiography The Ragman’s Son, he said ‘Since I was accused so often of trying to direct the films I was in, I thought I ought to really try my hand at directing.’ It was a difficult debut with many production problems, requiring his wife to act as producer. Douglas plays a charming scoundrel with one leg, a considerable challenge to his athleticism, and though he got credit for his role, the film received unimpressive reviews. Later in 1973, Douglas appeared in a made-for-TV musical version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Douglas was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his work in Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful and for Life. He was especially disappointed for not winning for the latter film, ‘I really thought I had a chance.’ Douglas did not win any competitive Oscars, but received a Honorary Academy Award in 1996 for ‘50 years as a moral and creative force in the motion picture community’. For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Douglas has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6263 Hollywood Blvd. He is one of the few personalities (along with James Stewart, Gregory Peck, and Gene Autry) whose star has been stolen and later replaced. In 1984, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, and he received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1991. In October 2004, the avenue Kirk Douglas Way in Palm Springs, California was named in his honor by the Palm Springs International Film Society and Film Festival. Popular at home and around the world, Douglas received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981, the French Legion of Honor in 1985, and the National Medal of the Arts in 2001. In March 2009, Douglas starred in an autobiographical one man show titled Before I Forget at the Center Theater Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, California. The four performances were filmed and turned into a documentary that was first screened in January 2010. On February 27, 2011, Douglas appeared on the stage of the Kodak Theater for the 83rd Academy Awards to present the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Douglas married twice, first to Diana Dill, on November 2, 1943. The couple had two sons, actor Michael Douglas and producer Joel Douglas. They divorced in 1951. He then married Anne Buydens on May 29, 1954. They had two sons, producer Peter Douglas and actor Eric Douglas. Eric Douglas died July 6, 2004 of a drug overdose. In 1991, he survived a helicopter crash in which two people died. This sparked a search for meaning, which led him, after much study, to embrace the Judaism in which he was raised. He documented this spiritual journey in his book Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning (2001). In his autobiography, The Ragman’s Son, he writes that ‘coming to grips with what it means to be a Jew has been a theme in my life.’ In an interview in 2000, he explained this transition:Judaism and I parted ways a long time ago, when I was a poor kid growing up in Amsterdam, N. Y. Back then, I was pretty good in cheder, so the Jews of our community thought they would do a wonderful thing and collect enough money to send me to a yeshiva to become a rabbi. Holy Moses! That scared the out of me. I didn’t want to be a rabbi. I wanted to be an actor. Believe me, the members of the Sons of Israel were persistent. I had nightmares — wearing long payos and a black hat. I had to work very hard to get out of it. But it took me a long time to learn that you don’t have to be a rabbi to be a Jew. In 1996, he suffered a stroke, partially impairing his ability to speak. On December 8, 2006, Douglas appeared on Entertainment Tonight, where the entire staff wished him a happy 90th birthday the night before. His son and daughter-in-law Michael and Catherine Zeta-Jones, were among the many celebrities who attended his birthday celebration. On the show, he discussed the books he has written and the death of his son Eric. In accordance with Jewish custom, Douglas celebrated a second Bar-Mitzvah ceremony in 1999 at the age of eighty-three. A portrait of Douglas, titled ‘The Great and the Beautiful,’ which encapsulated his film career, art collection, philanthropy and rehabilitation from the helicopter c
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